


XXII: Star

by ActuallyMarina



Series: XXII [2]
Category: Persona 3
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Cults, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Mystery, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-13
Updated: 2018-11-11
Packaged: 2019-03-04 02:17:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13354398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ActuallyMarina/pseuds/ActuallyMarina
Summary: Akihiko Sanada pursues a suspicious college student with connections to an emerging cult of The Lost, years after the defeat of Nyx. Minako Arisato's life becomes a little more complicated after a chance meeting with a clueless, but relentless rookie cop.Like it or not, they need each other if they're going to save the city.





	1. Chapter 1

**_If you wanna start a fight, you better throw the first punch._ **

**_Make it a good one._ **

Tatsumi Port Island had been quiet for a few years, which was more than one could reasonably hope for when it came to any major metropolitan area. Businessmen still liked to wave their dirty money around and kids still managed to get in with the wrong crowds. Normal problems, at least. Like anywhere else.

It was the perfect climate for a rookie cop to do some side work without jeopardizing his career.

Akihiko’s superiors _loved_ that he was always eager to work at night. He was still young enough that it didn’t bother him, especially after nearly a year on the job. Besides, they had families and kids to go back to. Even if it was at the Kirijo Group’s request (well, Mitsuru made it seem less formal than it sounded), he was glad to take his lumps. If it kept his precinct from hearing about his freelancing, all the better.

The Dark Hour still hadn’t disappeared entirely. The Kirijo Group officially categorized it as falling into a ‘waning/waxing period’, but that didn’t mean much to the remnants of SEES until recently. Akihiko didn’t need to look at graphs of painstakingly compiled data to learn something he could experience firsthand. There used to be weeks or even months between Dark Hours. Recently, the gaps of relief were getting smaller and smaller. It coincided a little too perfectly with major rumors floating around the city like a low hanging fog.

Shinji always said Akihiko couldn’t get info out of the seedy parts of the city when he looked so ‘goody goody’. It was even harder now that he sported a button-up shirt and tie more often than not. He knew exactly what his friend would say if he could see him like that.

_These scumbags you’re looking for don’t care if your shirt is ironed, Aki. You look like a damn substitute teacher._

He had to laugh at himself. No one else was around to do that for him.

But he gathered whatever information that he could, and the leads were slowly but surely turning up. A small group that used to meet in back alleys and whisper about mysticism and gods that no one had ever heard of before wasn’t quite so small anymore. They passed strange coded notes around and targeted troubled teenagers with promises of salvation and great rewards for those who dared to cast aside their old lives. The police considered them to be an emerging cult, but were lost without any indication of their goals.

Mitsuru had her own suspicions. It was Akihiko’s job to confirm them.

Part of that was trying to blend into the less-than-reputable haunts in the seedier parts of Port Island. He learned to dress in a way that didn’t scream ‘rookie cop’ quite as loudly (leaving his glasses at home, helped) and learned a surprising amount about mahjong strategies from the late nights he spent in bars getting the regulars to warm up to him. It wasn’t exactly heart-pounding undercover work, but he got to enjoy himself once in awhile. That, and he was getting better at eavesdropping.

On one particular night, he had a lead on some sloppy gossip by teenagers with bags under their eyes. Vague comments about “the meeting later” while one of them nervously palmed a small, wrinkled piece of paper. Another young man began asking what to expect, but was promptly hushed by his friends. They shuffled out soon after that, and Akihiko followed them into the nearby back alleys.

An unpleasant gust of city wind rolled across his firmly set frown. Those kids were smarter than they looked, because there wasn’t a single trace of them outside the bar. They knew not to loiter in one place for too long. He let out an irritated sigh, and readied his phone to message Mitsuru a summary of what he’d managed to gleam from his agonizingly slow investigation. He lifted the arm of his free hand, dabbing blindly at his damp face with the short sleeve of his shirt. The air was sickly humid as of late, and it was only going to get hotter as summer began.

While he was preoccupied, a soft set of footsteps very nearly escaped his notice. Just ahead, a relatively slender figure cut across the path to the mahjong bar and set off in the other direction. They might have _thought_ they looked inconspicuous, but their clothing was completely at-odds with the early summer heat. Even the flash of a light, heathered gray sweatshirt with the hood pulled was enough to pique Akihiko’s interest.

She hadn’t been at the bar, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t worth following. Maybe he could get the Kirijo Group some good news after all.

He kept his footfalls quick but light as he pursued the stranger. It wasn’t the most casual pace, but god, he was getting sick of being outpaced by sleep-deprived teens. The important thing was making sure he paid attention to his surroundings as he kept after the stranger. Accidentally finding yourself at a dead end is the best way to stumble into trouble. The kind that was made up of a drunk crowd of dropouts with bad intentions.

But he kept his gaze steadily forward, and noticed when the girl in the sweatshirt briefly glanced over her shoulder. Akihiko could see just enough of her face to see gloss-tinted lips purse in irritation, and then nothing else. He considered calling out to her. Maybe making a bad excuse to start a conversation, but he didn’t get the chance. By the time he opened his mouth to say something, the she had already taken off sprinting and ducked around the next corner.

He could hear Shinji again.

_Are you stupid or something? If you were breathing down my neck, I’d probably run too._

Very funny. Without any alternatives left, Akihiko ran after the girl. She might have gotten a head start, but he was no slouch when it came to giving chase. The only problem now was whether or not she was running because she had something to hide, or if he actually scared her. God, he was really hoping it was the former. Unintentionally turning into a back alley creep would look pretty bad if word got back to his superiors.

That, and it was quickly dawning on him that this would look bad to _anyone_ that came across them.

As they continued moving further behind the area’s convenience stores and clubs, he realized he needed to try something else. The girl wasn’t as far ahead of him now. Her hood had fallen down in the wind being funneled between the stained brick walls of the narrow alley, and he found himself staring at her long auburn ponytail as it bounced from side to side.

“H-Hey! Slow down!” A bad start, but what could he _possibly_ say to make her want to stop? “I just… want to ask you some questions!”

Even as the words kept coming out of his mouth, he knew they were all _completely_ unhelpful. But if they kept up their game of cat and mouse at this speed, she would probably fall and skin her knee or something. He didn’t need to feel like any more of a bad guy than he did already.

She veered around another corner, not even deigning to look back and acknowledge his fruitless attempts to smooth over the situation. Letting out a frustrated (mostly at himself, by this point) groan, Akihiko’s gait gained one last burst of speed as he made the same turn several seconds later. He was startled to see a pair of seething crimson eyes staring him down from a few yards away, and nearly fell over his own feet to come to a halt.

The girl’s shoulders heaved as she caught her breath, fists balled up under the too-long sleeves of her sweatshirt. There was a disarmingly cute graphic with hearts and curly english text emblazoned over the front that he hadn’t noticed from far away. It didn’t match the annoyance painting the soft lines of her face and the exhausted pink tinge to her cheeks.

“I told you to stop following me! I keep saying it, but none of you ever listen!” She took a quick step forward, and Akihiko took an equal step back. No amount of police training could teach him how to respond when someone that he was a head taller than looked at him with eyes so full of fire. It didn’t matter that he couldn’t respond just yet, because she clearly wasn’t finished. “I’m just looking for my friend, okay? If you don’t want me to get _really_ angry, go away!”

A few useless syllables tripped on their way out of his mouth. There was so much to unpack in those few sharp sentences. Where to begin?

“This is, uh… a misunderstanding..” He was still catching his breath while simultaneously wracking his brain for an excuse. He _was_ following her. Pretending otherwise would probably just make her mad, and he was taking her threat seriously. “I heard some rumors about kids your age getting into trouble in this area, and I was looking into it. I didn’t mean to startle you, miss.”

The girl’s expression was practically dripping with suspicion, but she leaned back on her heels slightly as he explained himself. It was oddly like watching a puppy with the heart of a police dog. Regardless of their difference in stature, he believed she might actually bite.

“If you don’t want to startle people, don’t follow them around in the dark,” she replied plainly. It seemed like the sincerity in his voice was doing the heavy lifting that his actual explanation couldn’t achieve on its own. She was still on guard, but less ready to fight. “And I’ve heard all the rumors. That’s why I’m here, so leave me alone already.”

It would be so much easier to just explain that he was a cop, but who knew if how alone they were? He couldn’t risk wasting months of lurking around in smoke-filled bars for word to spread that he couldn’t be trusted. A vague, but delicate touch was all he had.

He silently wished himself good luck. ‘Delicate’ had never really been his thing.

“Sorry, I promise I’m not with anyone that might have bothered you before.” Her frown deepened in an instant, and he had to take a measured breath to recover. Okay, no more hollow assurances. Think. What would soften her up? “...You’re looking for your friend? If she’s in trouble, maybe I can help you. I saw people leaving the bar that looked suspicious and ran into you when I was trying to follow _them_ , actually. Do you think she might be with them?”

Bullseye. The girl’s stern gaze faltered for a moment, down toward her feet then back up. Maybe she was wondering how much time she was wasting by arguing with a stranger. Akihiko was beginning to get the impression that she was honest, at least. Not a member of the cult, but worried for someone being drawn into their fold.

“...Was there a girl with them?” It was the most begrudgingly cooperative tone he’d maybe ever heard out of someone so close to him in age. And he was used to talking to young adults that had very little respect for him, in this line of work. “She has sort of ashy brown hair and she’s mature-looking. A few years older than me. That’s all I’m telling you.”

He frowned. It could be his excitement at finding a lead got the better of his memory in that moment, but he couldn’t remember a girl fitting that description. Or during any of his previous nights out. Great. It never felt good to hit a wall again so soon.

“I don’t think I saw anyone like that. Maybe if you tell me her n--”

The girl was already speaking over him.

“Do you know where those groups of people go to meet? Is it nearby?”

“I haven’t been able to figure that out just yet, but--”

She didn’t let him finish, once again.

“Do you know what this means?”

Her hands drew a crumpled piece of paper from the pocket of her sweatshirt. In the dim streetlight he could barely make out the messy strokes of dark blue in on its face. A hastily drawn oval with two bizarre curves bisecting it from top to bottom and left to right. He took a few steps closer to get a better look, but she drew her hand away when he didn’t respond to the question.

She was gaping at him. It was almost as if she were deeply impressed, or exactly the opposite.

“You… don’t know anything about them. Are you kidding me?”

A faint feeling of irritation welled up in his throat, and he furrowed his brow.

“Hang on, _I’m_ not the one acting suspicious here.” He gestured down toward the paper, which she promptly hid behind her back. “Where did you get something like that if you don’t know the answers to any of those questions either? I’ve been after these people for months and this is the first I’m hearing about that weird picture!”

He watched as an odd, satisfied smile pulled at the strange girl’s lips. The knowing look in her eyes made the hairs on the back of his neck stand straight up. It was clear that she felt zero obligation to explain herself, and was taking great pleasure in out-classing him in his own investigation.

“I guess I’m just doing a better job than you are.”

Akihiko sputtered in his attempt to reply, but he could already feel an embarrassed flush creeping up from his collarbone to his ears. This wasn’t normal. She was stepping all over his ego and making it look like fun. What was it about her that made his chest feel so tight and angry? He usually had a better hold on his emotions than this.

_Don’t worry, time’s up for tonight. Too bad. I could watch her dress you down for hours, Aki._

As badly as he wanted to get in the last word, the city itself interrupted their conversation. One of the nearby clocks began to chime loudly, each of the steady tones twisting and turning through the backstreets of Tatsumi Port Island until the count of twelve. The humid air turned putrid and clammy, while all the colors around them faded to slight variations of the same shade of green. Blood seeped through the cracks in the wall, and there was a deep gurgling noise behind him.

“Wh-... _What is that!?_ ”

Akihiko was already turning and pulling his evoker from the shoulder holster under his tidy button-up shirt. _That_ was why it paid off to dress nicely and wear multiple layers, Shinji. He pressed the barrel of the gun beneath his chin and pulled the trigger.

A small but feisty group of shadows was scurrying toward the two of them, clawing at the ground and pulling their body mass along behind them. Bursts of flame shot out of their clawed fingers in small plumes, but the flash of light and wind from Caesar’s arrival seemed to startle them out of attacking first. There were a few loud cracks as bolts of lightning cut into the asphalt, and the creatures groaned angrily as their bodies burned away into mist.

“Stay behind me, okay?” He looked over his shoulder as he tried to reassure her. By her tone and the look on her face, it was clear that this was probably the first time she hadn’t transmogrified. Their differences aside, it was his duty to keep her safe. “This is called ‘The Dark Hour’, and those monsters are-- _H-Hey! Where are you going?_ ”

Akihiko stumbled to the side as the girl shoved past him, making a break for it down the way they’d both came. She only turned enough to yell back at him one last time before disappearing from sight.

“If you ever see me again, don’t you dare talk to me!”

He was too dumbfounded to even bother chasing after her again.

“Not even a ‘thank you’...” Allowing himself a deep sigh, eyes closed, Akihiko took a moment to reflect on how badly this had all gone. His interrogation was turned around on him, and his best lead yet clearly didn’t have the greatest impression of him. That was _something_ to give the Kirijo Group, right?

What a letdown. He had higher standards for himself than this.

When he opened his eyes again, however, there was a consolation prize dancing at his feet. In her haste to get away, the girl had dropped the piece of paper with the cult drawing on it. He bent to pick it up, examining the image one more time. It still didn’t look familiar, but there was something unsettling about the crude, deep lines. The person who drew it was pushing the pen down so hard that it indented the back of the paper, raised like a swollen, amatuer tattoo.

Looking at it for too long made him feel uneasy. Like when you accidentally make eye contact with a stranger, and both of you can’t look away fast enough. He folded it neatly after a minute or two and put it in his pocket. Finally, something to feel good about.

After all, he needed to return the paper to its owner.


	2. Chapter 2

**_And if you wanna make it through the night, you better say my name like_ **

**_The Good, The Bad, and The Dirty_ **

It didn’t take long before everyone was asking about the bags under her eyes. So much for sliding under the radar at school, but Minako couldn’t even be annoyed with her friends. Only herself, for not making better progress in her investigation. That meant a lot of late nights in shady places. A lot of unwanted attention from just about anyone that was familiar with her usual habits.

Studying on the train, the morning of a big exam? Jumping from club to club every Saturday night? How far the former student council vice president has fallen!

Whatever. The rumors didn’t bug her that much. Her grades were still fine and she was still making it to nearly every volleyball practice. The school year was almost over, and then she could  _ really _ dedicate herself to getting more information about that cult and those creepy, tired-looking boys and girls that kept following her.

It was pretty funny when she paused to considered the reality of what she was doing. It was a shame, too. A college girl without any particularly special skills beyond pure grit had to take matters into her own hands because no one else was working hard enough. That didn’t used to annoy her so much, but the feeling had festered thanks to that strange guy she met.

How does someone  _ that _ clueless end up looking for such dangerous people?

Minako swore to herself that she wouldn’t give him another passing thought. It worked just up until the moment she realized that she lost her only physical clue regarding the cult’s whereabouts thanks to him. Between that and the weird monsters that showed up out of nowhere that night (and all subsequent nights since then), she sometimes found her mind wandering to thoughts of him far more often than she’d like to admit.

She should have shoved him harder when she had the chance.

Not that she could blame  _ all _ of her problems on him, as much fun as it was to try. Minako was nothing if not a little too brave and painfully observant. The ones following her didn’t used to be so easy to spot. It was possible that the cult was getting bigger by the day and she was just noticing them more often as their numbers grew, but even that felt overly simplistic. It felt far more likely that they simply didn’t care if she spotted them. Like they followed her with the goal of eventually being seen.

No one else acted like they saw them, after all. Maybe the recognition felt good. At the very least, that was the only reason she could imagine Saori had for hanging around anyone like that. She’d never admit to doing anything that could make people worry about her, but hardly anyone even noticed when she suddenly stopped coming to class for days at a time. 

Minako overheard two faculty members whispering that they couldn’t get in touch with her parents, no matter how many times they called. They didn’t seem to care that their only daughter could be sick or in danger, they’d said. It squared with the little bit Saori had bothered to mention about her home life. Now she hadn’t seen her friend in over a week, and no one else was going to look for her.

Considering the relatively short amount of time she spent looking into this cult, Minako felt good about the progress she was making. With a little more pushing, she knew she’d hear something that could lead to wherever they eventually took kids that were fully invested in whatever they preached at those meetings.

However, she could put her investigation on hold for the next few hours. Amidst all the gossip and curious looks being thrown her way, Rio was nice enough to ask her out for the evening. Paulownia Mall was their usual haunt by now; and there was nothing like squeezing inside a purikura booth or five to lift a girl’s mood. The dark circles under her eyes were no match for the filters on one of those things. They were probably too old for photo booths and crane games, but that didn’t stop them from having fun anyway.

Plus, the elementary school kids thought they were cool. That counted for something.

“Do you have to do this on  _ every _ picture?” Rio frowned as they looked over their spread, pointing sternly to each and every thumbnail-sized photo in the bright, spring-y pink and yellow template. Minako had given them both floppy rabbit ears in all of them. “I mean, at least do cat ears once or twice.”

“Isn’t it tradition?” She retorted, scanning her handiwork with a satisfied smile. “If I stop now, it’ll be bad luck. Besides, you look so cute like that!”

Someone stifled a laugh not too far from where they were standing. She almost missed it as Rio kept going on teasing her, but it came with the unmistakable sensation of being watched. An all too familiar occurrence these days.

The sound of the bustling crowd faded to the background. She looked around, catching the cool, gray gaze of a young man for only a split second. He was sitting on a nearby bench, doing a spectacularly bad job of pretending to read a book. She could have kicked herself for not noticing that he was watching her sooner.

Whatever her face looked like, Rio quickly followed her eyeline to the offending individual.

“Wow, talk about conspicuous,” she said in a soft, amused voice. “That’s gotta be the least convincing cover he’s used all night.”

There was a moment of silence before those words sunk in. Minako finally turned to her friend in disbelief, completely unable to parse what she was hearing. Before she could explain her confusion, Rio’s eyes shined with surprised and pure, unadulterated amusement.

“No way… You didn’t notice him following us this whole time?” She leaned in closer, and Minako felt her cheeks turning red at an alarming rate. How is it possible to be so good at noticing cult members, but not completely ridiculous, nosy strangers? “Minako, are you for real? He followed us to and from every single game we played in the arcade! He put in money in the machines next to ours, then didn’t even bother playing! The only reason I didn’t say anything is because he looked pretty harmless, if not a little weird.”

This couldn’t get any worse. There was no way to explain to Rio that they met before without also getting into the circumstances behind it. An intense urge to run over and knee the young man right in the nose almost consumed her, but it wouldn’t be that easy to get rid of this problem.

Thinking quickly, Minako suddenly found herself letting out a rather bashful laugh. It didn’t sound  _ too _ forced, which was absolutely key in a situation like this. Rio was could be impressively sharp at the most inopportune times.

“O-Oh… Oh, no! This is so embarrassing, Rio!” She did her best to keep her voice low, now painfully aware that the stranger might overhear their conversation. This was officially a full-blown emergency, and he didn’t deserve any more ammunition to use against her later. “I can’t believe he’s acting like this… We promised to keep it a secret for now!”

Much to her relief, it was Rio’s turn to look confused. Minako punctuated her lie-by-omission by shyly covering her face with both hands, peeking at her friend between parted fingers. She practically held her breath, waiting for the story to tell itself in the silence.

Finally, Rio let out an excited gasp. She began to speak, but stopped herself to take a measured breath. Feeling more composed, she pulled Minako’s hands away from her face and grasped them tightly in her own.

“That guy…” She kept to a whisper, fully seeming to grasp the gravity of the situation. Her eyes were hungry for confirmation. “ _ Is that handsome guy your boyfriend, Minako? _ ”

Oh, Rio. It felt so wrong to lie to her, but what else could she do? It only took a single, quick nod before the other girl practically tackled her into a tight hug. Soon they were both squealing and jumping up and down while passersby paused to watch, possibly alarmed by all the noise.

“You’re so…! How’d you…? Oh my god, you need to tell me  _ everything _ later!” Rio gripped her shoulders, the dead serious slant to her voice impossible to miss. Good, it seemed like she’d be okay to slip away for now. It would give her time to fill-in their romantic backstory. “I’ll head home now, so you guys can have some space.”

Minako made about a dozen different promises to fill Rio in before she actually left, unable to turn down her friend’s demands for the scoop on her imagined dalliances. Near the end, she found herself getting more and more annoyed with the stranger.

Sure, the lie was a desperate invention made in a state of panic, but it sure felt like his fault.

Still bristling with irritation, she let out a big sigh before making her way over to the bench. He hadn’t bothered to move, and made no attempt to acknowledge her when she approached. Maybe it would have been polite to clear her throat or say ‘excuse me’, but she wasn’t in the mood to play nice.

“Hey,” she called out flatly. “Is this a hobby of yours? Or is it just  _ me _ that you’re stalking? I told you to leave me alone.”

The young man’s shoulders shook as he began laughing again, finally closing the book he’d been feigning such interest in. This didn’t help her mood.

“You actually told me not to talk to you again, but I’ll assume you changed your mind.” He stood up, towering over her even from a distance of a few feet. The most annoying part of his face was how laidback and friendly it looked. “And, don’t worry. Like last time, us being in the same place is a coincidence. I’ve been looking for more leads since then.”

There was no way for her to argue with him on that. Paulownia Mall was, after all, a popular spot for people of all ages to gather. If he was still looking into the cult, there were worse places to loiter.

“You mean you stole my lead because you didn’t have any good ones,” she retorted, though it lacked some of her previous venom. “If you still think I have something to do with the cult, drop it. And the girl I was with? Leave her out of this. She’s a good person. I don’t ever want to hear that you’re following  _ her _ too.”

For whatever reason, he didn’t seem to expect that. Some of the tension left the stranger’s body language as he reached into his pocket, taking out what looked like a wallet. He flipped it open, showing her what was inside.

A small badge and ID.

“I didn’t want to say anything in the alley, just in case anyone was listening in. I spent too much time building up a cover in that area and most of the regulars still don’t particularly trust me.” As strange as it seemed for him to tell her this, something told her that he wasn’t lying. He didn’t seem like he’d be good at it. “My name’s Akihiko Sanada. You can check my identity over at the police station, if you want. Officer Kurosawa and I go way back.”

Minako had plenty of time to inspect his ID before he put it away. She opened her mouth to speak, but quickly closed it again. This turn of events… actually made a lot of sense. It suddenly dawned on her just how close she came to assaulting a cop in public. It was a weird feeling. Like regret and nostalgia, but for an opportunity to do something that would have caused a whole lot of trouble.

He took it upon himself to fill the silence when she didn’t have a response.

“I’m not going to bother your friend. I could tell by how you acted with each other that you’re two of a kind.” His head tilted toward the arcade, the corner of his mouth curling up slyly. “You already look a little bit like a rabbit, you know. Without adding ears, even.”

Minako felt her face flush. She turned sharply on her heel and began walking quickly toward the back of the mall. The young cop, Akihiko, stumbling slightly over his own feet to keep pace with her. He let out a hurried half-apology for teasing her, but she didn’t slow down.

“It’s a good thing. If someone your age is out having fun like this, it means you’re definitely not getting into trouble. How long do I have to wait for you to tell me your name, by the way?”

“You won’t bother my friends, but you’re still bothering  _ me _ .” It was still early enough in the evening that she had to weave carefully through the crowd to avoid colliding with groups of high schoolers. But he was determined to stay close behind. Too bad; if the mall were just a little bigger, she could probably make a break for it and lose him entirely. “Either you don’t have any new leads, or you think I was holding out last time and know more than I said.”

She paused, and let out a frustrated huff. “It’s Minako Arisato. I’m telling you because you’re a police officer, not because we’re friends now.”

“Alright, Minako. And, yeah, you’re on the right track.” He deferred to her without a fight, and when she dared to glance back, he simply shrugged. “It’s more that I think you’re the type to attract trouble. I’ve been watching those cult kids for months, and they’re hard to catch. You made it sound like you see them pretty often, which completely goes against their usual behavior. Call it intuition, but I think that’s worth looking into.”

“That’s the smartest thing you’ve managed to say to me across two conversations. I  _ do _ attract trouble. Trouble and cops, apparently.” Her jaw tightened, and she briefly lamented the loss of her normal day-to-day life. Before she started having weird nightmares and seeing monsters at midnight. “So, in the hopes that you’ll find someone else to hassel and leave me alone, I’m doing you a favor.”

They came to the emergency exit door at the very back of the building. Before he could get out any protest, Minako pushed it open. A gust of hot evening air rushed inside, but no alarms sounded. According to her classmates, it had been broken for years.

“A favor?”

Despite his confusion, Akihiko followed her out into the alley behind the mall. The narrow walls stretched high above their heads. There was no one around, and she was suddenly struck by how intensely naive this guy was for a cop. If she were part of the cult, she could be leading him straight into a trap. His innocence might have broken her heart if it wasn’t so annoying.

“This is where I saw that symbol.” They barely had to turn a corner before she stopped, pointing to a collection of white paint lines on a section of brick. It was partially faded, but unmistakably intentional. “I think the paint they use to supposed to be temporary, but this area doesn’t get as much rain, sun, or wind as the open alleys in other places they hang out.”

Akihiko was silent as he studied the symbol. Following a short pause, he reached into his other pocket and unfolded a familiar piece of paper. Minako felt another jolt of irritation buzz around her ears like an angry bee. Couldn’t he make his own copy, at least?

“It must mean something… They probably use it to mark a temporary meeting place, maybe before moving to a new location.” He squinted, turning his head slightly. His eyes darted back and forth from the paper to the wall, as if trying to find a hidden thread between them. For the first time since they met, Minako felt like she was looking at an actual professional. “But symbols like this aren’t arbitrary, so… what is it?”

While he was talking to himself, Minako slowly found herself getting absorbed in the question as well. She never really thought the meaning of the symbol was significant, but that didn’t mesh with how the human mind works. Sports teams have mascots, brands have their own unique look, and groups of people with a shared ideology need something to represent themselves beyond words and philosophies.

Stepping behind Akihiko, she glanced over his shoulder and tried it his way. The symbol on the wall, distressed as the paint was, looked identical to her drawing. An upright oval with two perpendicular curved lines cutting through its center. The longer she stared at it, the more it felt like it was staring right back.

“Oh…”

The realization came quickly, accompanied by a bizarre, hollow feeling in the pit of her stomach. Despite how deeply engrossed in this image he was a moment ago, Akihiko was now looking straight at her. He was clearly waiting for her to explain herself, so she did.

“Isn’t it… a mask?” Minako held a hand up near her face, mimicking the way someone might remove a noh mask, or something of a similar size. “When I look at it, it feels like looking at a face, but not really. It’s not an actual person, but something that would shield them from view. I mean… that’s what it looks like to me.”

However she came to the conclusion, Akihiko seemed absolutely delighted.

“I knew it,” he proclaimed. The proud little twinkle in his eye was hard to look at directly. Did her guess make him  _ that _ happy? “I knew it would be worth it to find you again. I could use your perspective going forward with this investigation, and I’d be glad to tell you all about the Dark Hour and shadows in return so that we-”

“No! No way, cut that out!” Minako cut him off, taking a step backward to put some familiar distance between them. Why did she even open her mouth? “Listen, I don’t want to play detective with you. I don’t want to know about those weird monsters! I only started looking into this cult stuff because my friend disappeared a few days ago and I want to make sure she’s okay.”

To say that Akihiko looked disappointed was a major understatement. He began to argue, but she didn’t let him. She raised both arms defensively, as if physically blocking his attempts to speak.

“I’ll help you if,  _ and only if _ , you hear anything about Saori Hasegawa. Otherwise, I haven’t changed my opinion about you!” She almost expected him to try to get another word in at this point. But he waited for her to finish this time. “Like I said before, don’t talk to me. Don’t  _ follow _ me, either! I… I don’t want to be involved in this.”

Finally, she felt like she was done. Minako began to turn and leave, but something occurred to her at the last second. There were two things in this alley that she couldn’t leave without.

“Sorry, one more thing.” She moved back to his right side, pulling her phone out of her crossbody bag. Standing snug against him, she flashed a smile at her camera and took a picture of the two of them before he could object. While he was still puzzled, she snatched the cult drawing from his hand. Both it and her phone went straight back into her bag.

“Rio wouldn’t forgive me if I didn’t take a picture.”

And  _ then _ she left as quickly as she could. He didn’t follow her this time. It was kind of fun to imagine him standing there, dumbstruck for another few minutes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the hiatus! I go into more detail on the notes for the latest chapter of XXII: Moon if you're really curious, but there was an unexpected death in my family in April that really made my life chaotic for a bit there. (It's still pretty chaotic now, but I'm managing.)
> 
> Sorry to leave you all hanging with only one chapter for so long! I'm itching to get to some romance, but the slow burn will make it so dang tasty when we get there. Stick around!
> 
> EDIT 10/27:  
> I'm working on chapter 3! I'm hoping to have it out by the end of October! Thanks as always for your patience!!!!
> 
> EDIT 10/30  
> NEVERMIND IT'S GETTING LONGER THAN I EXPECTED SO EARLY NOVEMBER!!! SORRY!!!


	3. Chapter 3

"It seems that Saori Hasegawa briefly attended Gekkoukan High School in 2009."

The sound of shuffling papers layered over Mitsuru's voice on the other end of the phone. The former student council president still had considerable pull at their alma mater. It took less than a day for her to track down Hasegawa's file. Impressive by any metric, but then, that was the kind of thing that the Kirijou Group was good at.

_Admit it; even Mitsuru is a better cop than you are, Aki._

He elected to ignore that. Akihiko splayed his elbows out on his desk, a pen in his hand primed to take notes. What that girl, Minako, said during their last encounter had stuck with him.

He'd find her friend. Then, at least he could say that he helped someone instead of chasing vague tips that didn't pay off.

"How briefly are we talking here? We would have been seniors then, but I don't think I ever met her." As much as Akihiko fancied himself a model upperclassman at that time, the SEES members were... pretty distracted during that whole year.

Mitsuru let out a sigh laced with audible irritation.

" _Very_ briefly, I'm afraid. Her homeroom teacher at the time wrote extensive notes on the events leading to her transfer." A pause, and the sound of more pages turning. "It seems that she wasn't very popular among other second year girls. There are vague references to an interview that she gave to a somewhat... seedy underground magazine known for intentionally misquoting and exploiting high schoolers."

That rang a bell. Near the beginning of his training, he shadowed a detective following a case like that. Whispers of local high school students that gave interviews being threatened with blackmail. They would take the student's picture for the interview, and print it along with words they never said.

They'd then suggest that the interviewee's name might get leaked. Cash would trade hands for several weeks until the scandal died down. Then the process would repeat with a new victim.

"I assume that Hasegawa didn't leave Gekkou on good terms?" He knew the answer to that. As dear as his old high school and the people in it were to him, not all of them were kind. The bullying that Fuuka had endured was proof enough of that.

"No, I'm afraid not. But, according to the file from her subsequent high school, she went on to graduate there without incident." No wonder he could hear so many papers. How many files did she have pulled, exactly? "Due to the circumstances of her transfer, these notes were rather detailed too. They mention that her attitude and grades both greatly improved once she had a stable friend group."

 _Weird, that didn't work for me._ _Maybe_ _you weren't such a great friend after all._

Akihiko grimaced. His subconscious was being hard on him lately. Shinjiro never pulled any punches when he was alive, though. It would be strange for him to start now.

Then, something occurred to him.

"Hang on... This could be a long shot, but do you think you could look for another student's file from that school?"

"So we _do_ think alike sometimes, Akihiko." He could hear a familiar, satisfied note in her response. That was good. It usually meant that she hit a particularly juicy vein of information. "Your problem child, Minako Arisato? She was in Hasegawa's class in their third year. Her file isn't very detailed, but it speaks volumes. All I know is that she played volleyball and got into a few fights on the behalf of other students."

Akihiko couldn't help but smile and lean back in his chair. This situation was still as serious as it gets, but still. Leave it to Mitsuru to have an answer to a question before he even asked it.

"Yeah, that tracks with what I know about her so far."

The next night he was out stalking the back alleys of Port Island, it was a full moon. There was a time where seeing it hanging in the sky still made him tense all over. It loomed over the city like the single eye of a discerning god, disappointed with the humans below. The moonlight cast long, twisted shadows in the space between the skyscrapers. It made the young island feel like a too-small cage.

So long after their confrontation with Nyx, though, it didn't feel that bad. Amidst all the bad memories and trauma of high school, he felt good about those nights now. It might not have been a perfect happy ending, but they saved a lot of people. It was worth the effort for that reason alone. The Dark Hour wasn't an enemy as much as the one place he could operate completely within his element now.

But, on full moons, he still made a point to avoid the backstreet where Shinjiro died.

_Afraid I'll haunt you twice or something? You're already stuck with me, dumbass. You can't hide from reality forever._

Maybe it was still too soon. Or he was more scared of it than he'd like to admit. Either way, it was ritual now. He'd stick with it until it didn't feel right anymore.

As if worried it could disappear while he wasn't looking, Akihiko took a picture out of his pocket. He studied the image of Saori Hasegawa, committing her face to memory once again. The photo was a little older, from the year she started college. Mitsuru's quick and thorough research had provided him with a lot of good information.

Unsurprisingly, Minako Arisato was attending the same college as Saori Hasegawa. And something told him she wouldn't be thrilled that he'd managed to look into her background. If at all possible, he would avoid bringing up how thorough of an investigation Mitsuru had done.

Not that he needed to justify himself. He was a cop and she was a suspicious figure in his investigation of a damn _cult_. It felt silly to remind himself that he was doing the right thing here.

After their conversation behind the mall, he decided to stop trying to follow people. It seemed more worthwhile to focus on the evidence he already had, and those mask symbols were a good start.

If she was right, and it designated a meeting place of some kind, it could provide a massive break for him. If he could find a freshly painted one, he’d have a chance of seeing the cult members assemble there later.

Akihiko paused to look at a wall he was passing. The stained bricks were weathered and worn, but he could still make out faded lines of white paint on them. He stepped back, and considered it from further away.

It was hard to see now, but he could make out the general shape of the mask. Exactly the same size as the one from behind the mall. It might've even been drawn at the same height, which was fantastic news. The person who put it there would have to be unusually tall and, by extension, easy to spot.

As he was reaching for his notebook to jot this observation down, a sharp groan cut across the hot night air. It startled him enough that he almost dropped his pen, but only for a moment. That level of listless irritation was starting to become familiar to him.

He looked to his left, and there was Minako Arisato. She was wearing another disarmingly cute outfit, like every other time he'd seen her. It was completely at odds with the look of bottomless annoyance on her face. He noticed that she didn't actually seem surprised. It made sense; they were close to the spot where they first met around two weeks ago.

He shot her a smile and a small, friendly wave with the hand holding his pen.

"Hi there, Minako."

Her radiating anger seemed to shrink inward, as if already resigned to this third confrontation. Her fists clenched tight at her sides as she walked over to him.

"We need to stop meeting like this," she replied flatly. Since she was the one that found _him_ , she seemed disheartened. This time, she couldn't scold him for instigating the conversation. "Find something good?"

Her less than half-hearted attempt at civility was almost as surprising as it was, well, sort of funny.

"I'm fine, thanks for asking."

Red eyes flashed like dying embers, as if asking 'why are you like this?' He couldn't resist, and her utter disdain was now palpable. Should he be shaking in fear or laughing at her expense? He couldn't decide.

"We're both doing pretty great, right? Another hot night, where the pavement stinks like spilled sake." They were standing shoulder to shoulder now, and she spoke while squinting at the cult symbol. Like it was completely natural to study this new clue while also taking pot shots at him. "Stuffy and uncomfortable, lonesome and unlikable. _You_ are, I mean."

_See, what'd I tell you? I like this girl._

"F-Fine, no more small talk..."

An awkward silence hung there for a moment, but Minako cleared her throat to cut through it. She leaned closer, giving his arm a light, amiable slap. It could have been his imagination, but the gesture felt like an wordless apology for going a little too far. When she spoke again, her tone was perfectly conversational.

"So? You looked happy a minute ago. Got something to share?"

Akihiko snapped back to attention, remembering why they were there. Right, the cult. This time, he had a shot at getting her to stick around and help if he played his cards right.

"Yeah, this one looks recent, but not too recent. You said it seems like the paint is temporary, right?" He gestured toward the wall as he spoke. "It's been rainy for the past two or so days, but you can still see a little bit of this one. This could have been the last place they met."

A look of surprise replaced her lingering annoyance. Minako studied the remnants of paint again, then promptly furrowed her brow.

"The last place they met? But I thought..."

Minako let out a surprised gasp, then began excitedly bouncing on the balls of her feet. Before he could even ask what was happening, she'd already snatched up his hand and pulled hard. They were soon running off in the direction that she came from.

"Whoa! Hang on, where are we going?" Akihiko fumbled to get his notebook back into his pocket, barely keeping pace. How was such a short girl so damn fast? "It would be nice if you explained what you're thinking! And I wasn't done looking at that!"

"Like usual, you're one step behind me! I saw a symbol not far from here and I thought it could be too old to be worth looking at." She shot a playful grin over her shoulder, and ignored his hand's vague protests to her iron grip. He didn't need to be dragged along, but she obviously didn't care. "But _now_ I think it was more recent! So if the symbol you found is the most recent meeting place, then the one I found..."

Akihiko didn't need to hear the rest. Now he was getting excited too.

"It might be the _next_ one...!"

What a development this was turning out to be. If they actually managed to locate the spot where the cult would meet next, the clues would keep coming.

It’d take a day or two, but they could figure out how often they actually meet. How large the groups at these meetings were. How often new kids were being brought into the fold.

They kept running, and his head kept spinning with all these new possibilities.

Their goals. How dangerous they were. A hierarchy of leadership, if there was one. He didn't realize it, but he was squeezing Minako's hand back. He might as well have been sweating endorphins, he was so damn happy.

_Shit, Aki. Don't be the guy that creams his pants thinkin' about a cult._

Nice try. He’d need a lot more than that to squash his good mood now.

"It's right over here!"

A few more yards and the pair stumbled to a halt. Minako wrenched her hand from their (now mutual) grips, and pointed at a large dumpster. The lid was open and resting against a wall, and the cult symbol stood out in stark contrast to the black plastic. The paint was peeling, but it didn't look that old.

Akihiko looked around this new area, beginning to recognize where they were. It was a location that he definitely patrolled within the past week, but quickly wrote-off.

"When did they manage to do that?" He thought aloud. Minako was still catching her breath, but shot him a curious glance. "I haven't seen anyone suspicious here. Not recently, at least."

Her lips pursed as she considered his confusion. It was strange to watch her put so much effort into this. But, he supposed, this time it was _her_ idea to help him.

"You're sure?" She asked, once again looking over the cult symbol. "But, isn't the paint newer? There's no way the other one you found tonight is more recent that this one!"

Akihiko paused again. He thought back to the last time he was in this area, which wasn't too hard. One of the bars he liked to eavesdrop at was around the corner. This dumpster probably got used by their kitchen staff all the time.

Then, the simple explanation hit him.

"It must have been painted a more than a week ago, but the lid isn't typically wide open like this. They hid it until they needed to use it for their next meeting."

Minako's entire face lit up. She was starting to look more and more like the girl he saw having fun in the arcade. The way that stray strands of hair from her dainty updo framed her face made her look... he wasn't sure how to describe it.

She looked like a person with a good heart. The kind of person that threw a punch, however clumsy, for someone weaker than her.

He could offer to teach her how to throw a real punch, but she probably wouldn't accept.

"That could mean that other symbols were painted in advance, too! Or hidden! Wow... No wonder I never found anything by trying to follow them. They're smarter than I thought." As soon as it came, her look of righteous satisfaction vanished. "How smart, though? If they don't want us finding them, I doubt they would show up here anytime soon."

"It's 'us' now? I wasn't expecting that."

She let out something between a scoff and a forced laugh, eyes rolling. He never met someone so bad at pretending they weren't friendly when they clearly were.

"Nice try. I stick by what I said before; I'm not doing anything crazy unless it helps Saori. We're not at that point yet, and you're..."

Before Akihiko could hear what he 'was', Minako trailed off. Her eyes locked somewhere past him, and guarded concern spread across her face.

"Okay, I was wrong. They want us to find them."

Akihiko turned to see what she looking at. He had a good idea, but it still went far beyond his expectations.

A large group of people were staggering down the alley from the way they came. He couldn't count them from where he was standing, but there were way more than two. Which made them vastly outnumbered.

They didn't have much in common on the surface, but they were all young and tired-looking. Like the kids who were suffering from Apathy Syndrome several years ago. Only this time, there was an unsettling air of purpose to their movements.

"It's true! Our Brother has arrived."

A voice called out from the other side of the alley. When Akihiko looked back again, he realized too late that they were cornered on both sides. Soon, cult members all began calling out with similar sentiments to the first person.

**Fate. Prophecy. Our Brother.**

As quiet as their voices were, they overlapped too much for him to take the words in after a while. He couldn't help but look to Minako through the gently building chaos. She looked pretty much exactly how he felt, which wasn't a surprise. They were desperate for a way out of there.

The advancing crowd was only interrupted by a sudden, low, and almost deafening chime. There wasn't even a building with a clock nearby, but the concrete vibrated against the soles of their feet. He'd never heard anything like it.

Akhiko turned his face toward the sky. Even as it became tinted green, the light from the full moon hurt his eyes. For something that always happened at midnight, the Dark Hour had impeccable timing. It wasn't the most masterful escape, but it would work.

"N-Not this again!"

Minako watched with some horror as the cult members' bodies twisted into grotesque shapes. At the same time, he could see shadows materializing on the walls around them. Angry balls of blackish sludge, using sickly claws to pull themselves down toward the pair.

The cult members that remained seemed to panic all at once. As if sensing that they were out of time, the crowd rushed inward. Over two dozen people were sprinting toward them from both directions.

Akihiko managed to grab his evoker from its holster, but he wasn't sure what to do first. Transmogrified coffins began to line the alley. He turned to Minako, intending to say something, but nothing came out. They shared one last moment of silent panic before bodies began crashing into them.

Akihiko felt someone wrench his evoker out of his hand. He glanced down at his feet, but another person's shoulder knocked him badly off balance.

By the time he looked up again, he couldn't see Minako anymore. His heart sank, and he was suddenly, genuinely horrified. Shorter and much lighter, he knew his so-called partner must have been pulled away.

The cult members continued their frenzied crusade for another minute or so, but their numbers dwindled. More and more coffins filled the alley, which would have been a relief if it weren't for the shadows.

They splattered onto the ground around Akihiko, advancing on him like a familiar old rival. Now would have been the perfect time to actually use his evoker, but there was no time to look for it. Several smaller shadows lunged for him. He managed to throw one or two good punches before his back collided with the nearest wall.

He pulled up his arms defensively, catching a small explosion of fire. It burned straight through his right sleeve, forcing a pained hiss through his teeth. They weren't even _strong_ shadows, but he could only do so much without Caesar.

Ironically, he found himself thinking about high school. That full moon in April, when he was out by himself. Mitsuru warned him, and years later, it was still happening.

" _Persona!"_

A bizarre sound cut through the shadows' hungry cacophony. Bullets fell from the sky like hail, whistling until they collided violently with black flesh, or sinew, or whatever shadows were made of. They shredded in an instant, one-by-one, and vanished.

Where the mob of monstered used to be, Minako was standing alone. Besides a skinned knee and cheeks stained with a few angry tears, she appeared unharmed. The moonlight cast long shadows over all the coffins still lining the pavement.

It made it look like there were twice as many. Like she was the only living person in an eerie, above ground graveyard. She let out a slow, shallow breath, and walked over to him.

"...I knew I'd regret getting involved in this." She let out a small sniffle, and hastily rubbed at her eyes with her free hand. "Are you okay? Those... _monsters_ really seemed to hate you."

Akihiko started to explain that he'd be fine, but stopped. He didn't realize until then exactly why her other hand was occupied.

She was holding an evoker.

A momentary wave of relief came over him. It made sense that she picked his up during the shuffle. When she noticed him looking, Minako lifted it so that they could both examine it.

"Oh, yeah. I saw you with one of these things the night we met. I sort of... guessed how to use it. I'm glad I was right."

She turned it over, and the moonlight illuminated the side of the evoker. The metal looked worn, even somewhat dingy. It was engraved with 'S.E.E.S.' in small letters that he recognized perfectly. The sight made a heavy lump form in his throat.

_Ha, you've gotta be kiddin' me. That ain't your evoker, Aki. So, whose is it?_

Akihiko cleared his throat. He made a deliberate attempt to keep his tone calm and measured.

"Uh, Minako. Where did you get that?"

Her wide, bemused eyes spoke volumes all on their own. She didn't understand what he was asking, or why.

"Didn't you give it to me? I saw you take it out right before we got separated." She tilted her head as she spoke, still clearly trying to make sense of the past few minutes herself. "I felt someone push it into my hand and tell me to use it. You're welcome, by the way."

Akihiko ran an anxious hand through his hair. Great. He was experiencing a real rollercoaster of emotions tonight. He knew what he had to do next, but it was also one of the _last_ things he wanted to do.

Mitsuru would kill him for involving a college kid in this investigation, but there was no doubt now. Whether she wanted to be or not, Minako was part of this. They couldn’t just let a new persona-user go.

"Great, so. What are you doing tomorrow? I need to introduce you to someone."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for being patient!!! I had some bursts of inspiration to keep working on this, since right now it's less of a creative drain than XXII: Moon haha.
> 
> Anyway, cults! Intrigue! The ghost in your head being rude to you! We have fun here.

**Author's Note:**

> Surprise, XXII is an AU series and I'm not dead. I'll be honest from the jump: I got this idea listening to The Good, The Bad, and The Dirty by Panic at the Disco. It's a good Akihiko/FemC song, y'all.
> 
> I'm still not nuts about the fic summary so please ignore me if it keeps changes as the story develops. Also, note the M rating. We'll get there.


End file.
